The print head is moveable along a scanning direction for applying an ink image to a swath of the medium. The medium, such as a paper sheet, can be stepwise advanced in the transport direction so as to allow an empty swath of the medium to be moved under the print head and be printed. During the printing of an image, the carriage is driven back and forth along the scanning direction to print successive swaths with the print head. A transporter is provided for stepwise advancing of the medium between each successive swath.
The accurate positioning by the transporter of the stepwise advancing medium with respect to the print head is very important. The need for precise positioning of the medium is increased when the printer is a high-resolution printer used for printing graphics with high resolution. The precision requirements for the positioning of the medium are therefore increasing.
Several solutions have been proposed. In particular, the accuracy of the positioning of the print heads relative to the print head fastening has been improved using a number of techniques, such as the addition of an additional actuator to move the print head, e.g. in the medium transport direction or in a rotational motion, for calibrating the position of each print head relative to the print head fastening and/or relative to other print heads.
However, these solutions for position calibration do not take into account any mispositioning due to in accuracy in the advancement of the recording medium in the transport direction. Moreover, with increasing speed and productivity, it becomes more challenging to provide for a transporter that is enabled to transport the medium in a short period with high accuracy. If at all technically possible, the costs for such a transporter would become economically unfeasible.